STAMFORD, Conn. — Sporadic Charter Internet outages throughout this region and elsewhere prompted some irate customers to seek answers from the nation's fourth-largest cable operator this weekend. But officials at the Connecticut-based cable TV, telephone and Internet company say they're still investigating what caused the service interruptions.

In parts of Western Massachusetts, including Springfield's suburbs, many people couldn't use their Twitter or Facebook accounts for several hours on Saturday afternoon. The outage didn't exactly cause panic in the streets, but it did force some families to actually put down their handheld gadgets for a spell and consider other low-tech activities.

Kim Haas, a spokeswoman for Stamford-based Charter Communications Inc., said the company was working to restore service, adding that the issues were "intermittent across parts of our footprint."

It was unclear how widespread the problem was, but Charter customers from as far away as Montana and Minnesota complained about slow or defective Internet service on Saturday.

Minnesotan Jeremy Jerm Roehner claimed the service interruptions were a regular affair. "Same time every month, too. Weird," he posted on Facebook.

Heidi Vandenbrouck, a Charter company spokeswoman for this region, told 22News the company was aware of problems in Massachusetts and "working as quickly as possible to restore service." The cause was still under investigation, she said.

In Western Massachusetts, anyone who attempted to view comments, photos or videos on various social media sites yesterday afternoon probably noticed that they either wouldn't load or were significantly delayed. There was no immediate word on whether Charter intends to credit customers for lost service.

Last month, the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that 95,000 cable subscribers affected by the historic October 2011 snowstorm could pursue $7.1 million in damages against Charter for services lost during the storm, which knocked out power to thousands in Massachusetts, Connecticut and elsewhere across New England.

The appellate court ruling was the result of a lawsuit brought by a handful of plaintiffs, who argued that Charter only agreed to credit them for lost cable, Internet and phone service after a federal suit was filed. Charter contended that its government contract didn't automatically require the company to repay customers, but rather only if they requested reimbursement. The court rejected that argument.